Fundamental Issues in Theology and Science

In recent years significant progress has been made toward Einstein’s great objective of a unified field theory combining all primary forces in the universe, through a coordination of relativity, quantum, gravity and thermodynamic theory. One thinks here, for example, of the brilliant work of Stephen Hawking in linking together thermodynamics and the geometrical properties of black holes1. I myself do not consider that in principle a complete unified field theory can be achieved, owing to the contingent, unbounded nature of the finite universe, for contingent structures defy precise conceptual analysis and formalisation. Nevertheless, the more deeply scientific inquiry penetrates into the multilevelled intelligibility of nature, the more it needs a unified view of the universe.